cloudformation

AWS CloudFormation infrastructure as code for stack management. Use when writing templates, deploying stacks, managing drift, troubleshooting deployments, or organizing infrastructure with nested stacks.

1.16x

Quality

82%

Does it follow best practices?

Impact

97%

1.16x

Average score across 3 eval scenarios

Securityby

Advisory

Suggest reviewing before use

Quality

Content

64%

Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.

This is a solid reference skill with excellent actionability — all code examples are complete and executable. However, it's overly long for a SKILL.md, with large template examples that would be better placed in separate bundle files. The workflow could be improved with explicit validation steps (e.g., always run validate-template before deploying) and error recovery loops.

Suggestions

Add an explicit validation step (aws cloudformation validate-template) as the first step before any create/update operation, and include a feedback loop for fixing template errors before retrying.

Move the large resource examples (VPC, DynamoDB, Lambda) into separate bundle files (e.g., examples/vpc.yaml, examples/dynamodb.yaml) and reference them from SKILL.md to reduce the main file size.

Trim the Core Concepts section — Claude already knows what CloudFormation templates, stacks, and change sets are. Replace with only non-obvious details or project-specific conventions.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Conciseness	The skill includes some unnecessary content Claude already knows (e.g., explaining what templates, stacks, and change sets are) and the VPC/DynamoDB examples are quite lengthy. The core concepts section could be trimmed significantly. However, the CLI reference tables and code examples are reasonably efficient.	2 / 3
Actionability	The skill provides fully executable CLI commands and complete, copy-paste-ready YAML templates covering multiple common patterns (S3, Lambda, VPC, DynamoDB). The troubleshooting section includes specific CLI queries with JMESPath filters.	3 / 3
Workflow Clarity	The deploy workflow shows create → wait → update → delete but lacks validation checkpoints (e.g., validate-template before create, checking stack status after operations). The change set workflow is a good pattern but doesn't include error handling or feedback loops for failed deployments. Missing explicit 'validate template first' step before stack creation is a gap for a potentially destructive operation.	2 / 3
Progressive Disclosure	The content is well-structured with a table of contents and clear sections, but it's monolithic at ~300 lines. The VPC and DynamoDB examples could be split into separate reference files. No bundle files exist to offload detailed patterns, and the external references are only to AWS docs rather than companion files.	2 / 3
	Total	9 / 12 Passed

Description

100%

Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.

This is a strong skill description that clearly identifies the domain (AWS CloudFormation), lists specific concrete actions, and includes an explicit 'Use when' clause with natural trigger terms. The description is concise, uses third person voice, and is highly distinctive from other potential skills.

Dimension	Reasoning	Score
Specificity	Lists multiple specific concrete actions: writing templates, deploying stacks, managing drift, troubleshooting deployments, and organizing infrastructure with nested stacks.	3 / 3
Completeness	Clearly answers both 'what' (AWS CloudFormation infrastructure as code for stack management) and 'when' (explicit 'Use when' clause covering writing templates, deploying stacks, managing drift, troubleshooting deployments, organizing with nested stacks).	3 / 3
Trigger Term Quality	Includes strong natural keywords users would say: 'CloudFormation', 'templates', 'stacks', 'drift', 'deployments', 'nested stacks', 'infrastructure as code'. These are terms AWS users naturally use.	3 / 3
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk	Highly distinctive with clear niche targeting AWS CloudFormation specifically. Terms like 'CloudFormation', 'stacks', 'drift', and 'nested stacks' are unique to this AWS service and unlikely to conflict with other skills.	3 / 3
	Total	12 / 12 Passed

Validation

90%

Warnings & errors only

Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.

Validation — 10 / 11 Passed

Validation for skill structure

Criteria	Description	Result
frontmatter_unknown_keys	Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata	Warning

	Total	10 / 11 Passed

Repository: itsmostafa/aws-agent-skills
Commit: 4ab904a

Reviewed: about 1 month ago

Table of Contents

Discovery Implementation Validation

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